BALTIMORE — A Unified Command has been formed as a response to an oil spill Friday at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

The Coast Guard along with Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority personnel, including Airport Operations, and Fire and Rescue; D.C. Department of Energy and Environment, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and D.C. Harbor Patrol are responding to spill of an estimated of 7,500 to 9,000 gallons of Jet A aviation fuel within the facility and into the Potomac River south of Reagan National Airport.

The Coast Guard is the Federal On-Scene Coordinator overseeing the Unified Command’s response.

Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Baltimore received a report from the National Response Center of approximately 8,000 gallons of unaccounted Jet Fuel with some reaching the Potomac River.

A Coast Guard helicopter crew conducted a flight at first light and observed the fuel was largely contained around the source of the discharge, extending to Four Mile Run and the southern boundary of Reagan National Airport. As of 10 a.m. Friday, the source of the spill is secure. The spill has not reached the main channel of the river. The Coast Guard has adjusted an initial Safety Zone on the Potomac River to cover an area within a 1,500 yard radius of the emanation point from the airport.

An environmental cleanup team, Miller Environmental, was contracted by Allied Aviation Fueling, the fuel contractor for the airlines at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, to undertake the cleanup efforts. Cleanup efforts are ongoing.

Following consultation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, it is believed the environmental impact from the spill is limited.